Story+1997-05-10+Warsaw,+Poland

´´This is a song about a fellow who gets out of prison trying to get his life together....every, everybody has, uh, struggled with a little straight time.....´´
 * 10.05.97 Warsaw, Poland, intro to ´Straight Time´**

´´In the, uh, States we got a portion of our....citizenry whose....lives and dreams are considered expendable....we´ve got murder incorporated....´´
 * 10.05.97 Warsaw, Poland, intro to ´Murder Incorporated´**

´´(speaks Polish)....this is for, uh, this is for Peter, if you´re out there (a guy: ´Yeah !´) (chuckles)(the guy in the audience screams more) alright, relax, relax (chuckles)....(speaks Polish)....´´
 * 10.05.97 Warsaw, Poland, intro to ´Highway Patrolman´**

´´I was gonna, uh, I sang this last night to....some success and uh (chuckles) and I was gonna try it again tonight, the problem is that it’s a new song and there’s a....lot of words in it and they’re all in English so I’m a little worried about it (?)(someone : ‘‘Freehold !´´) yeah, alright (chuckles) that´s one that’s gonna get it (chuckles) but uh....I don’t know whether I should give it a shot or not.....uh.....how’s English doing out there ? (cheers)(chuckles)....it’s doing a lot better than Polish is up here, I think (chuckles) ok, I’ll give it a try so (chuckles) but, uh, anyway I went back to my hometown and played at my Catholic school....I was brought up Catholic, nuns taught me.....and uh....uh, the whole Catholic education and I know Poland’s a big Catholic country....the Pope himself, the Man, right from here, you know (chuckles) and uh....so I went back and I sang this song at my, at my Catholic school as a tribute to my hometown so, like I said, I stood on stage in my little auditorium with.... you know, Jesus was on the cross back there looking over my shoulder....and uh, I was a little nervous but uh....all the nuns that taught me in grammar school were sitting out in front, they brought ‘em all back....from, uh, like I said, that great nun-land in the sky, wherever they go when they’re done teaching....they brought ‘em back and they were all real glad to see me, forgot about all the bad stuff and made up like it was all good (chuckles) but that was ok with me so (chuckles) so anyway, uh, I’ll try to sing this one, this is, uh ....dedicated to my, to my hometown, so there I am, I’m standing on stage in my Catholic grammar school and the nuns are out there, the priests are out there and all my relatives are out there.... several old girlfriends are out there.....you know, the whole deal (some people clap their hands) thank you.....but, you know, wait, let me sing it first at least, you know, it may be....a shitty song, I don’t know....I’ll get right back to you (chuckles).... (....) You get the jist of the whole thing (chuckles) I was having some second thoughts but, uh....this was my chance for revenge so on I went.....´´
 * 10.05.97 Warsaw, Poland, intro to ´In Freehold´**

´´(speaks Polish)(chuckles) so then I went from that one to this one, this one is a song about a great sexual practise very popular in the United States, uh....the nuns were still out there after ´Freehold´ so I had to give it one more good shot (chuckles) this is a song about, uh, cunnilingus, uh, I´m not sure what the Polish word for cunnilingus is, probably cunnilinguster or something like that (chuckles) but uh, uh, anyway, I had a feeling that some of those nuns may know a little bit more about cunnilingus than they let on anyway (chuckles) like I say, it gets lonely in that convent at night and uh (chuckles) oh Lord, alright, what can I say ? except all around the world, brunettes are fine, baby (chuckles)....´´
 * 10.05.97 Warsaw, Poland, intro to ´Red Headed Woman´**

´´Alright....this is for my red headed woman.....´´
 * 10.05.97 Warsaw, Poland, intro to ´Two Hearts´**

´´(someone yells ´Jersey Girl´) I ain´t gonna do that old bastard tonight, I´ll tell you (chuckles) this is a song, uh....another song about my hometown....´´
 * 10.05.97 Warsaw, Poland, intro to ´The River´**

´´Thanks, there was a, uh....I was telling the folks last night, there was a little park at the end of the....my town where (someone yells: ´Jersey Girl´) hey buddy, you gotta shut up, alright ....or else you can come up here....(speaks Polish) uh, there was a small park at the, uh, end of my town and, uh....I remember there were all these little white crosses in it and when I used to come home with my mom and dad, it was just a place that I knew we were back home and back in town (?)....and then I got a little older and I asked my mother what was on those crosses and she said....´Those are the names of all the men that, that died in the wars we fought from....from our town´ so.....anyway....I´ll do this for you tonight.....´´
 * 10.05.97 Warsaw, Poland, intro to ´Born in the U.S.A´**

´´Thank you....alright....let´s see if I get this one right, this is a song about men and women ....woah, that´s tricky (chuckles) you know, that´s right....(speaks Polish)....oh, and love and sex.....gets real tricky....(speaks Polish) * (chuckles)(cheers)....´´ (* according to the Backstreets Magazine´s report on the show, Bruce said - in Polish -´I love sex´ instead of the intended ´love and sex´)
 * 10.05.97 Warsaw, Poland, intro to ´Dry Lightning´**

´´Thank you, this is a song called ´Long Time Coming´ and it’s a song, oh (chuckles) that’s a new song, I guess, uh....don’t write many of these, like, I’ve been telling the folks, it’s a happy song....don’t write a lot of happy songs, I’ve found that the public doesn’t like ‘em, number one, and, uh.....you can’t really trust ‘em, they come back and bite you in the ass later, but uh (chuckles) ´That’ll teach you, Mr.Happy Song Writer !’ (chuckles) but, uh, this is a song, I guess, about everybody, you know, you try and....I think the only....evident chance at salvation is trying not to do unto others as was done unto you (chuckles) I think you have your kids and you get a chance to sort of.....maybe make up for some of the mistakes you feel were made on you in some fashion....and uh....I guess that’s what this song is about, it’s about trying to do that ....as righteously as possible, yeah....within the parameters (chuckles) this is called ´Long, Long Time Coming´....a happy song (chuckles) ....´´
 * 10.05.97 Warsaw, Poland, intro to ´Long Time Comin'´**

´´Thanks....I invented some new chords in that song (chuckles) but, alright.....this is a, uh.... the next four songs are set in the, uh....Southwest, Southwestern part of the United States and I travel around there when I, when I can and uh.....uh, I was on a trip in Arizona and I met, uh, these two Mexican men, we were in a little motel in this little dusty desert town, like I say, it was one of those little four-corner towns - there´s a grocery store, a garage, there´s a motel and a bar, all the things for human life to flourish....and do well....and I was in one of those motels, it was a little tiny motel, you know, like I say, where you can lay on the bed, opened the door and reach out and touch your car in the parking lot....I like that, and uh ....these fellas came in around 11.30 at night (?) one fellow was my age, the other was a young kid....and uh, they came over and looked at our motorcycles and started talking about, he had a younger brother that died....in a Southern California motorcycle accident....about six years later, I was working on this song about these two brothers that get caught up in the Central California drug trade and uh....I heard his voice in my head and uh.....there was something about the way he talked about his brother that stayed, stayed with me so I dedicate this to him, it´s a song about, uh, Mexican gangs come up and they hire migrant workers in the Central Valley to work in their drug labs, they´re the ones that end up.... busted or worse....it´s a song about two brothers and this is for my mysterious friend wherever he may be.....this is called ´Sinaloa Cowboys´....´´
 * 10.05.97 Warsaw, Poland, intro to ´Sinaloa Cowboys´ (following ´Long Time Comin'´)**

´´Thank you, this is a, uh, song that´s set on the San Diego-Tijuana border (?) get a lot of young guys coming, in Southern California, come out of the army and they end up going to work for the border patrol....and uh....ends up being a confusing job, you know, uh....it´s sort of an issue that was abused during the last American election, there´s always been people coming across the border and.....doing work that nobody else wants to do for a pay that nobody else wants to take....risking their lives, uh, at the behest of American businesses and in return their kids´ll get a little education or some medical care....but uh, anyway, this is a, uh....song about a young border patrolman trying to figure out where that line is down there, this is called ´The Line´....´´
 * 10.05.97 Warsaw, Poland, intro to ´The Line´**

´´Thank you, this is a....song set in, uh, San Diego, they have a lot of young kids, 13, 14 years old coming across Tijuana River into San Diego who end up on this strip called Twelfth Street....I think once you have your own kids, you, you´re real sensitive to anything that you read or hear or see with children, you know....uh, there´s something about, I always say the kids, they have the window onto the grace that´s in the world and they bring that grace into your life but it´s also sort of your responsobility to protect that grace that surrounds them and let ´em grow in it until they´re old enough to protect themselves (people clap) but this is uh, yeah.....(speaks Polish)(chuckles) but this is a story about kids that don´t get that opportunity, that, that grace is violated very early on and uh.....they don´t have that, that chance, I guess, so they´re left out on their own.....this is called ´Balboa Park´....´´
 * 10.05.97 Warsaw, Poland, intro to ´Balboa Park´**

´´Alright....I grew up in a house where there wasn´t a lot of talk about culture or art or, uh, you know, books or what those things, what part those things were supposed to play in your life....and uh, everybody was sort of busy trying to keep their heads above water and uh....I guess the biggest break you could get would be if you got a chance to go away to school or ....uh....and the first thing that had a real impact on me was my mother would have the radio on in the kitchen in the morning, tuned to the Top-40 station....when I was in grammar school, she was a young girl and she liked that rock and roll music....and I´d come down to breakfast and I´d have on my little green tie and my green Catholic school pants and I would be feeling repressed (chuckles) and uh, uh, I had my cereal but all those records would be playing right before I went to school every day and uh, like I say, I used to sort of feel like I was hearing a message or something that said ´There´s a party going on, there´s a party going on, you´re missing it, little boy´ (chuckles) but those records were a really, they were the only, uh, culture that I knew but then they did serve that purpose, they opened up my world, as small as it was, to a, they gave me a, a vision of, of the life that was bigger than my little town and bigger than the lives that so many of my relatives and my parents had been living and something to pursue.....it was very subversive and powerful for small town, New Jersey .....but uh, I got older and those records sustained me, they still do....as I got older, I started to read and a friend of mine showed me, showed me John Ford´s Grapes of Wrath....I remember after I saw that movie, I said that was....I wanted my work to feel like that in a sense that I wanted it to maybe reach into people´s lives and....find a place there, I guess, but there was something about the film and the novel that stayed with me, that idea, it was a story of a man that was educating himself and then trying to salvage the community, if he could....and uh....I always go back to that picture and I always find something new in it and in the novel....and this is a song, I guess, that´s uh, about some sort of hope that I found in, in, in the book and in the film, a sense of how people hope against all reason, even after the world reveals its senselessness, people continue to carry that hope inside and uh.....I guess that´s what makes us human beings, you know (chuckles) whether it makes sense or not but uh, anyway, I wanna do this tonight, I know this is the part of the world where you had such tremendous struggle, like I can´t even really imagine, so I wanna do this song of hope for you and I hope I can say this right (speaks Polish).....´´
 * 10.05.97 Warsaw, Poland, intro to ´Across the Border´**

´´Thank you....this, thanks, this next song is a love song, uh., uh, so if anybody´s out there who got their girl with ´em, I want you to get cozy right now (?) bring ´em near you and uh, oh, wrong guitar, alright....there´s two of these ! (chuckles) we just hand the same one back and forth all night, it´s the same guitar, just keeps going back and forth (chuckles) make it look like there´s a lot of guitars (chuckles)....alright, I lost one (chuckles) it´s gonna be one of these (chuckles) but, uh, you know, I gotta keep up with that U2, I need at least two or three guitars (chuckles) I wanna go have a little (?) car (?)(chuckles) a little tiny one (chuckles)(?) down on a string (chuckles) gotta keep my production out there....alright, here we go (chuckles)....woah !....(?)(chuckles) alright, alright (chuckles).....´´
 * 10.05.97 Warsaw, Poland, intro to ´There Will Never Be Any Other For Me But You´**

´´Hey, I wanna thank everybody for coming down to the shows here in Warsaw, thank you very much, I appreciate it and I´d also like to thank, you´ve been a fabulous audience tonight, I appreciate it very much that, uh.....having the room to come up here and play these songs like this is a gift that you give me and I appreciate that very much so I want to say once again (says something in Polish)....”
 * 10.05.97 Warsaw, Poland, intro to ´Streets of Philadelphia´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//